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35 years later, a blizzard of memories of '78 for Fitchburg-area residents

By Michael Hartwell, mhartwell@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
02/06/2013 09:27:45 PM EST

Susan Fisher had just given birth to her first child two months early when the storm hit 35 years ago today.

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With mother resting at Massachusetts General Hospital and baby receiving special treatment at Boston Children's Hospital, Fisher's husband needed to travel between the two medical facilities.

The Blizzard of '78, a hurricane-like nor'easter that dumped 27 inches of snow in Boston and paralyzed New England for a solid week, made that virtually impossible.

Massachusetts labored under a state of emergency for a week, and President Jimmy Carter declared the state a disaster area.

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE FILE PHOTO
Cars are buried under several feet of snow in Fitchburg in the aftermath of the Blizzard of '78, as seen in the Feb. 8, 1978, edition of the Sentinel & Enterprise.

Twenty-seven deaths were blamed on the storm, and damage ran in the tens of millions of dollars. With roads impassable, stores and banks closed, mail service was halted, and schools were closed for several days.

In order to see both his wife and newborn, the new father had to get special permission from police to travel on roads that were otherwise closed to civilians, said Fisher, who is now the director of the Westminster Council on Aging.

On the day before the anniversary of the epic storm -- and with a snowstorm potentially hitting the region Friday -- locals vividly recalled where they were this week in 1978.

Juanita Day, 57, of Lancaster, was living in Sterling during the storm and remembers the snow piled all the way up to the second floor of her house.

Her husband was a lineman for the Sterling Municipal Light Department, and he had to work a lot of long nights.

Larry McNeill, of Leominster, was in the Air Force Reserves at the time, and a position opened in Hanscom. He ended up driving down Route 2 during the blizzard before the roads were shut down.

"There was no one on the roads but me," he said.

Loraine Kelley, of Gardner, was living in Burlington, Vt., and had a wedding to go to on Cape Cod.

"I took a bus out of Burlington, and the bus had to stop in Bellows Falls, Vermont," Kelley said.

The bus could not go any farther in the storm, and she was faced with the choice of staying in Bellows Falls or heading back to Burlington.

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / STEVE SHERIDAN
Loraine Kelley, of Gardner, was living in Burlington, Vt., and had a wedding to go to on Cape Cod. "A lot of cars were stuck all down 128," she said. "It took us several hours to get there, but it certainly was an adventure."

She ended up calling her boyfriend to pick her up in his Jeep from Gardner. They drove down Route 128 and made it to the Cape without getting stuck.

"But a lot of cars were stuck all down 128," she added. "It took us several hours to get there, but it certainly was an adventure."

Brian Fournier, of Fitchburg, spent a lot of time shoveling his driveway. He ended up piling the snow against the front of the garage into a big ramp.

"I could walk up it to the roof of the garage and shovel snow off," he said.

Fournier said he was fortunate to keep the electricity on the whole time.

"If you weren't close to your family then, you became real close," he said.

"The plow men got rich that year," said Shirley Buckjune, 64, of Lancaster.

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / STEVE SHERIDAN
Brian Fournier, of Fitchburg, spent a lot of time shoveling his driveway. He ended up piling the snow against the front of the garage into a big ramp. "I could walk up it to the roof of the garage and shovel snow off," he said.

She was living in Lowell and was at work at the Hewlett-Packard plant in Andover when the storm started. Work let out early, and her commute home, which usually took 20 minutes, stretched four hours.

Her husband was a Lowell firefighter, and he ended up spending the next five solid days at the fire station. Many of the firefighters were stuck at home and could not come in to relieve them from duty.

After four days, Buckjune walked three blocks to the nearest variety store to buy some food.

"The shelves were picked clean," she said.

No other businesses were open, and there were no trucks coming in with supplies.

She said one of the biggest problems was finding a place to put all the snow.

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